St Johns High School - Blue Devil Yearbook (Darlington, SC)

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The City Beautiful Citizens of Darlington and future citizens of Darlington; 1 had, I admit, you in my thoughts and Darlington in my heart when I chose my subject for this afternoon—“The City Beautiful.” This is said to be a mechanical age; this land a birth place of a multitude of servants, which perform silently their labor at the push of an electric button and tend to hurry modern existence along at a jazz-like pace. However, this age is not making Americans a race of soulless ones, lost to the appreciation of the finer things of life; but our artistic natures are being stimulated and we are learning more and more how to appreciate to the fullest the beauties of nature, art and character. How lovely is the setting of this stage! The trees in the background, the sun slowly sinking in the west casting its lengthening shadows; the birds twittering in the trees all nature attuned in harmony. This stage itself, the gift of one who wished to conribute toward the cultivation of the beautiful in the hearts and minds of St. John’s pupils, will ever be a memorial to him. and an inspiration to us. and those who come after us. Development is going on all around us. Instead of the one-story frame, building for the public school, with its limited number of teachers, we have two handsome brick buildings situated on a campus unexcelled in the state, and a corps of teachers, the equal of. if not the superior of any school the size of this. Many of the old neglected buildings have been remodelled or torn down to give way to beautiful architectural structures and modern bungalows. Instead of the old dusty, dirty streets, we have splendid paved ones; instead of water polluted by germs, artesian water. These improvements which add so much to the health and beauty of our city are largely due to the efforts.of our “City Fathers.” On the square, the lawn surrounding the court house is lovely with its grass and flower» thanks to our Civic League! Our city is famed for its trees. The custom to plant trees annually to replace those blown down or removed is a worthy one and it should give us pleasure to make this contribution to posterity. Some people say they do not care to plant flowers and shrubbery at a place when they are there only temporarily, for others to enjoy. How selfish! It is probable that children from those homes are the ones we sometimes see breaking down the little trees planted with loving care and with the desire to add beauty to the lawns and streets. For these children the poor as well as the rich, a park, the natural site of which is nearby, would prove a blessing and they would be taught to appreciate and admire the flowers. Tourists and persons seeking homes are attracted by Darlington, since it is a beautiful, well- kept town, and naturally associate the character of the people with the appearance of the town. Where there is beauty and cleanliness there is less vice, sordidness, cheap music and cheap literature; and so from an economic standpoint it pays to have a beautiful city. Outwardly, all of these signs may seem to some people only the result of prosperity, but the change is not only on the surface, it is underlying and has a far deeper significance. We are learning to appreciate the beauty as well as the utility of things. Our aesthetic senses are be- coming keener. Some writer has said, “What is true. What is good, and What is beautiful are all the same.” So let it be known far and near that our own City Beautiful” is both true and good, as well as beautiful. -GRACE VAUGHAN. Salutatorian. Twenty-Eight

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GRACE ELIZABETH VAUGHAN Basketball ’23-’24-'25; Critic Lanier Literary So- ciety; Member St. John’s Literary Society; Or- chestra ’23- 24; Literary Editor Junior Edition; Editor-in-Chief Senior Edition; Class Play; Salu- tatoriam Surely a host of kind fairies hovered over the cradle of this little maid, showering gifts upon her bonnie head. Good looks they gave her, and grace (to match her name) and attractiveness of personality. Brains they gave her, ambition, and strength of character. St. John’s, too, is sharer in these fairy gifts; for through them Grace has not only won honor and distinction for herself, but has laid fresh laurels at the feet of her Alma Mater. SALLY WINN Basketball ’24-’25; Captain Team '25; President St. John’s Literary Society; Local Editor Bulletin '24; Class Play; Advertising Editor Senior Edition. “Of all the girls I’ve ever known, There’s none quite like our Sally.” As a friend, she is loyal and trustworthy, big- hearted and faithful. When literary, social, athletic or scholastic duties call, Sally never fails. In addition to these rare qualities, Sally’s good common sense and ready smile have made for her a wide circle of friends. Twenty.Seven

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Don t You Remember Just think, Classmates, we have been together for eleven years, and yet I can close my eyes and picture Miss Carrie's room on that never-to-be-forgotten day, away back in Septmeber 1914, when we first started to school! Don't you remember how scared we were? I know that I was and I know just as well that you were, too. I can see John Howie right now. with his bobbed hair—maybe that's where we girls got the style with his face shiny clean and his clean little smock suit, trying to hide behind his mother. And don't you remember, how huge Ben Ellerbe looked? I am sure he would have made two of any of the rest of us. We might have guessed that he would wind up as president of the class. Only that was one of the things we didn't know anything about or cared anything about, then. But no matter how big and handsome Ben was you can guess as to that by looking at him now’ he was not too good or too dignified to pull Claude Vaughan's curls. You remember those curls, of course; I am sure that you do. Ben didn't think he was looking when he pulled them. Maybe he wasn’t, who knows? But can't you still hear the yell Claude let out? It even frightened Ben. I wonder if Claude saved those curls. Don't you think he should have done so? What nice souvenirs they would have made for his classmates if he had them to divide among us now. I think what interested us most that first day was lunch. We thought the time for it never would come. Did two hours ever seem as long as those two hours from 9 to 11 that day? And don’t you remember what a commotion Elizabeth Boatwright and Virginia Baird caused by insisting on taking their lunch into chapel with them when they first got to school? 1 think they were afraid that if they left it in the classroom, they would never see it again. How many of us there were in the infant class which started off then, I cam only guess. The class has kept changing all the time as it went along. Besides those I have named, only Ada Hoole, Clara Mae Dutton, Willard Gray, Grace Vaughan, John Howie, Wesley Harrell, Leonard Smith, Elizabeth Player, Elizabeth Coker, Virginia Baird and Jessie Long have made the through trip from start to finish. Tom Pendergast joined us in the third grade. Dan Berry and Fred Sumner were fifth grade additions. William DuBose and Edwin Ervin have been with us since the sixth grade. The Class would certainly not have been what it is if they had not come into it. Don't you ALL agree with me? That sixth grade! Let us pause and think about it for a moment. For don't you remember that this was the year we had Miss Dargan as our teacher? Was there any year of all the eleven in which we got more out of school than this year under Miss Dargan? And don’t you remember that it was while we were in 6th grade that America entered the World W'ar? What a time it was! All of us wanted to help, of course, and don't you re- member all the excitement of those days and the boxes we packed and sent off to our soldier boys? Then the next year brought us to 7th grade and put us really and truly in the High School building, where we could see even the mighty Seniors day by day, and close at hand and discover after all they were human. Ammie Buchanan, Mary Louise Harrell, William Boatwright. William Hoole, Willie Ellerbe, Jo Edwards, and the rest of them. And don't you remember that this was the grade in which we made the acquaintance of Latin and Algebra? 1 wonder how much most of us have improved on that acquaintance since. T wcnty-N ine